Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients

Step One: Soaking
• 1 cup organic whole spelt flour
• 1 cup organic kamut flour
• 1 1/4 cup plain whole milk kefir (or cultured buttermilk)
• 1/4 cup pure honey (I prefer sage honey due to its mild flavor)
• 2 tbsp rapadura (or sucanat)
Step Two: Baking
• 2 medium-to-large overripe bananas, mashed
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup chopped crispy walnuts (or pecans)
• Optional: 1/4 cup fair trade 65% cacao chocolate chips, or carob chips

Instructions

Step One:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together kefir, honey and rapadura. Mix in flours until well combined. (Mixture will resemble sticky dough.) Cover the bowl and place it in a warm area of your kitchen for 12-24 hours.
Step Two:
2. Once soaking time is completed, preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mash banana, and then whisk in butter, eggs, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add the banana mixture to the soaked flour mixture and whisk well, until thoroughly combined. The soaking process yields a very thick batter and will take some effort to combine. Don’t worry, your patience and effort in mixing will be richly rewarded!
3. Next, fold in the nuts and chocolate chips, if using. *Pour the batter into a well-oiled 9x5-inch loaf pan. (Coconut oil works great in keeping bread from sticking to the pan, but you can also use olive oil or butter.)
4. *Important Tip: Be sure when pouring the batter into your loaf pan, that there is at least one-inch of clearance from the top of the batter to the top of the loaf pan. This quick bread rises at least an inch while baking, so it will spill over the sides of the loaf pan, if you don’t leave at least one-inch of space for it to rise in the pan during the baking process.
5. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Then, lower oven temp to 325 degrees and continue baking for an additional 30 minutes, until bread is a rich brown color and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes in the pan.
6. Using a knife, gently loosen the bread from the sides of the loaf pan and place a large plate over the top and invert it to turn bread out upside down onto the plate. Allow to cool an additional 5 minutes, then simply use your hands to gently lift the bread and turn it right side up onto the plate before slicing. Enjoy!